Why are there no staff black cartoonists at a time when we need them most?

[As a disclaimer, ComicsDC editor Mike Rhode was on the jury that voted to give Darrin Bell the RFK Journalism award for cartooning last spring. Although I'm not sure why that should matter to anyone].

Saturday, December 26, 2015

In this vaudevillian romp of a musical based on Mo Willems's children's books, Elephant Gerald and Piggie sing and dance their way through plenty of pachydermal peril and swiney suspense, backed by nutty backup singers The Squirrelles. Age 3+

You know we had to get you something awesome for the holiday, Third Eye Faithful.. and here it is -- the Third Eye DAY AFTER CHRISTMAS Sidewalk Sale!

We hope you've had a super great holiday, and got to spend some quality time with your family -- and of course, some quality time with all the cool stuff they got you from Third Eye!

And, we know that many of you are just itching to come throw down some of those gift cards & Christmas $ that were waiting under your tree!

So, we're going to give you an extra special reason to visit us on the Day After Christmas to do so!

Our annual DAY AFTER CHRISTMAS Sidewalk Sale returns, and we've got table after table waiting to be lined up in front of Third Eye Comics - Annapolis, and they're all going to be stocked deep with all sorts of totally rad goodies... at 50% off or higher!

So, whether you were already planning a Third Eye visit (you know you were!), or maybe you want to show your friends and fam that are in town visiting the awesomeness of Third Eye, come on by & have some fun with us this Saturday!

Last month we ran the following story about Bill Cogswell reading Whiz Comics in 1949. A friendly reader of ComicsDC, Brian C. (who lives nowhere around here and whom I'm only slightly acquainted with) actually sent a copy of the comic to me for Bill. Here's Bill enjoying it today for Christmas in 2015.

Here's the original post:

My friend and neighbor Bill Cogswell used to collect comics back in the day. When his sister Ellen passed away recently,
I saw this picture of them. It's Christmas 1949 and Bill appears to be
reading Whiz Comics #119 (March 1950 cover date)* judging from the Grand Comics Database (which provided the image). Captain Marvel was the main feature.

Following the old familiar story, Bill's mother threw away his comic books when they moved within Arlington.

*comics came out months before their cover date to fool the newsstands into keeping them on display longer.

Local cartoonist (and Fantom Comics employee) Chris Scott
will host a character design workshop Jan. 9 at 2 p.m. at Fantom Comics. The
Facebook event page doesn’t mention if there is a fee for it. (Chris is an
excellent illustrator and very personable and fun.)

As I've done this fall, I'm noting the books that I've received for review, but haven't had time to read yet. Publisher's descriptions are in italics.

The book I'm most looking forward to reading is Singapore's Sonny Liew's fake biography of a cartoonist. This has already been published overseas, and caused a contretemps within the Singaporean government over its funding.The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye

Now in his early 70s, Chan has been making comics in his native Singapore since 1954, when he was a boy of 16. As he looks back on his career over five decades, we see his stories unfold before us in a dazzling array of art styles and forms, their development mirroring the evolution in the political and social landscape of his homeland and of the comic book medium itself.

With The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye Sonny Liew has drawn together a myriad of genres to create a thoroughly ingenious and engaging work, where the line between truth and construct may sometimes be blurred, but where the story told is always enthralling, bringing us on a uniquely moving, funny, and thought-provoking journey through the life of an artist and the history of a nation.

Titan continues reprinting European comics last seen a couple of decades ago.There's a lot of zaftig nudity in this first one. None of these are particularly to my taste, but Titan is doing an excellent job with their production values and pricing.

The world of Akbar is in grave danger; Ramor, the cursed god, is about to be set free and spread unending chaos! The witch Mara can bind him to his prison, a conch shell, but she needs something special to do so... the legendary Time-bird. She charges her daughter, Roxanna, with enlisting the help of the aging warrior Bragon, and together they set out on a quest to save the world!

I don't expect this one to be to my taste honestly. Jodorowsky's work has always left me cold.

After a break of 20 years, artist extraordinaire Jamie Hewlett (GORILLAZ) is leaping back on the Tank Girl wagon, re-teaming with series co-creator Alan Martin to bring you a whole new take on the foul-mouthed, gun toting, swill-swigging hellion! Featuring riotous 100% original content from Hewlett & Martin along with contributions from a host of series stalwarts and newcomers, get your head down, put your hands over your private parts, and prepare for a chaotic collection of strips, pin-ups, and random carnage!

See a new, caring side to the legendary science fiction monster as he tends to Jonesy the cat, endeavours to keep his house cleaner than the Nostromo, and searches for his place on a cold, new, alien world: Earth. From facehuggers to feather dusters, discover how the perfect killing machine relaxes after a day of scaring space marines.

In this exciting sequel to Escape from the Lizzarks, Herk is happy to have a new family and a new place to call home. But when the Lizzarks make an all-out assault on Amphibopolis using a giant monster, Herk must seek the help of the megasloth to save the city and his adopted family. Meanwhile, Sissy, Herk's sister, discovers the dark truth about their long-lost brother Zerk.

A team of scientists has sent a monkey into space! And good thing, too, because he's a mean, selfish, noisy, bullying little fur-bag. But... all does not go well with the flight, and Monkey's spaceship barely clears the first hilltop before crash-landing in a peaceful forest. Monkey decides this is a new world and claims it for his own. And his first decree is that all other animals should be banished! What follows is a series of hilarious, off-the-wall interactions between Monkey and the other forest animals.

Reprints from a British comic book, this is definitely for the elementary school student.

DC's version of the venerable Li'l Archie books claim to be for ages 8-12, but I think as a comics - chapterbook mashup, it'll hit for younger kids. The draft I got has very rough pencils, but Nguyen's art looks like a good fit. If you skip over the illogic of the story and characters completely that is.

The team behind DC Comics LIL' GOTHAM takes readers to the halls of Ducard Academy in Gotham City, where a young Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman start their very own Junior Detective Agency!

Young Bruce Wayne is the new kid at Ducard Academy, a prep school for gifted middle school students. Bruce finds out pretty quickly that he doesn't fit in: the faculty seems to not just encourage villainous behavior from its students, but reward it. He makes friends with two other outsiders, farm boy Clark Kent and the regal Diana Prince. The three band together to form a detective squad to find out why all of these extraordinary kids have been brought together at Ducard Academy, and to see just what the faculty is plotting.

An all-new series from the Eisner-nominated team behind Batman Lil' Gotham (Dustin Nguyen and Derek Fridolfs), Secret Hero Society uses comics, journal entries, and doodles to reimagine Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman as three students in the same school. They'll try their best to solve their case, but just because you're faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, or an Amazonian princess, it doesn't mean you get to stay up past eleven.

The nation's cartoonists on the year in politics

Every year political cartoonists throughout the country and across the political spectrum apply their ink-stained skills to capture the foibles, memes, hypocrisies and other head-slapping events in the world of politics. The fruits of these labors are thousands of cartoons that entertain and enrage readers of all political stripes. Here's an offering of the best of this year's crop, picked fresh off the Toonosphere. Edited by Matt Wuerker.

Join the Newseum Institute and Reporters Without Borders for a discussion of the impact world-wide on a free press and free expression after the terrorist attacks on the Charlie Hebdo magazine staff on Jan. 7, 2015, and on the public at multiple sites in Paris eleven months later. Panelists will include experts from the U.S. in the Knight Studio and online participants from France.

Sunday, December 20, 2015

The latest Congressional spending bill prevents the District Of Columbia from funding abortion services for poor women and regulating and taxing the sale of marijuana. They did, however, repeal the ban on sledding on the Capitol grounds, after a vigorous local outcry last winter.

Apparently, they're still hurting from all the bad publicity they caught with the sledding ban, but could care less about all the ill will they get by restricting women's healthcare rights and the right to tax and regulate a plant that's been legal for nearly a year. Still, there's prime sledding opening up on the hill at the West Front, so there's that.

Featured Post

by Mike Rhode Team Cul de Sac was formed by my friend Chris Sparks to raise money for the Michael J. Fox Foundation's Team Fox charity...

ComicsDC is a blog for information and events relating to cartoons, cartoonists and comics including comic books, webcomics, comic strips, political cartoons, animation and caricature in Washington, DC and its environs (roughly Baltimore, MD down to Richmond, VA and Annapolis, MD out to Front Royal, VA). Press releases including store events are welcomed. Established 2006.

Matt Dembicki, feature writer

About Matt Dembicki

Matt Dembicki is a cartoonist workin' and livin' in the DMV (District-Maryland-Virginia area). He previously edited and contributed to the Eisner-nominated and Aesop Prize-winning 'Trickster' and the Harvey-nominated District Comics, which the Washington Post included in its top books of 2012. Matt's other comics projects include the nature-based graphic novels Xoc: The Journey of a Great White (Oni Press) and Mr. Big: A Tale of Pond Life (Sky Pony Press). Matt is a co-founder of the D.C. Conspiracy, a local comic creators collective that publishes the semi-annual free comics newspaper Magic Bullet.